And a good time was had by all... but was it art?

A few days ago, Jean-Pierre Moisan, the leader of the Gatineau-based large ensemble Le Big Band Caravane, made me do a bit of a double-take when he wrote that his Ottawa International Jazz Festival show – which was not reviewed by the Citizen — prompted one of his fans to comment: “… for sheer enjoyment and entertainment value, your show was better than Wynton’s concert.”

“Do you believe that your show was more enjoyable and entertaining than Wynton’s?” I replied.

“For audience members looking to be amazed by the quality of the playing, I would lose all credibility if I was to say that we play better than the LCJO [Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra, led by Wynton Marsalis — P.H.],” Jean-Pierre responded. “The Lincoln Center band is made up of handpicked musicians, each of whom would hold their own as a headliner. Not many bands in the world can top that band for quality of playing.

Then, he continued: “However, for 95 per cent of the audience, that difference is not the most important.”

And I did a BIG double-take.

“Live music isn’t just a listening exercise,” Jean-Pierre asserted. “It’s about entertaining people, making them say wow at the musicianship AND making them have an emotional reaction, making them smile, giving them a good time. And it’s very clear we did all of that extremely well, in addition to playing at least as well as any other band in Ottawa.”

I’m in no position to comment on how enjoyable or entertaining Big Band Caravane was, or how well it played. Still, I do want to take issue with two points that I find in Jean-Pierre’s message.

First, I think he’s selling many listeners short if he’s saying that the overwhelming majority of them don’t ascribe a huge amount of value to “quality of playing” — although what that means can be pretty variable. I also want to say that live music is about much more than entertaining people and giving them a good time.

The live music that matters most to me — and I would suggest to much more than five per cent of the jazz audience — has artistic intentions and seeks to be not only entertaining, but also profound and even sustaining. I believe that many musicians would agree with me, and am puzzled and even a bit disappointed when I hear or read musicians such as Jean-Pierre leave art out of their mix and, as I see it, settle for the lesser goal of entertaining.

Let’s isolate some of the aspects of the matter. Jean-Pierre writes about “making them (listeners) say wow at the musicianship.” Sure, Brad Mehldau and Richard Galliano, left, are amazing virtuosi. But really there’s much more to them than instrumental technique. That’s as it must be. It’s often said, with iconoclastic pianist Thelonious Monk top of mind, that proficiency is in the service of what the musician means to say through music. Otherwise, it’s just a display of proficiency, wholly about itself and nothing more.

(The odd paradox that strikes me now is that it can be those musicians who lack proficiency who are most impressed by hearing it, while those who have it hear beyond it, into the deep spirit of artful music.)

So when it comes down to what really matters, I think musicianship — as in quality of technique — is a red herring. However “quality of playing” may also mean something deeper — the message imparted by the technique and, with respect to jazz, the improvising, the spirit and commitment behind the playing — and in that sense, it’s critical.

I remember hearing jazz pianist and music guru Kenny Werner speak a few years back in Toronto, and his suggestion was that the quality of the music was in a sense separated from the quality of jazz improvising per se:

“Have you ever heard a bebop player who played well, but had no impact on you whatsoever? While you were listening to him, you were thinking, `I think I left the keys in the door. I think I left the microwave on.’ And then you heard another guy play bebop, and this guy was riveting.

“They both played bebop,” Werner continued, “but in the hands of one person, it was totally negligible, irrelevant, music. In the hands of another person, it’s everything.”

Speaking to a University of Toronto master class that I attended and wrote about for the Citizen, Werner apologized for sounding like a hippie, but said that the his hypothetical second bebop player is “completely playing from the nectar of his love.

“Music is the nectar of the moon, if you turned the moon over, and a white, milky substance poured out, and became moonlight on the ocean. That nectar, that’s music. Music is a sunset over the ocean. The blue hills in Scotland. Music is the Adriatic Sea. The clouds when you’re sitting in the mountains above the clouds. The mountains in Idaho. It is nothing but these delights.”

Jean-Pierre does write that live music seeks to elicit an emotional reaction, and on that we agree – although we may differ in terms of degree.

Music as entertainment may draw some smiles, but they, I would argue, would be fleeting. Ars longa, entertainment brevis, you might say.

As I have been so frequently in recent blog posts, I find myself thinking: where does Brian Blade fit into this topic? The answer is a quotation of his in the latest Down Beat: “It was playing in church that had the biggest influence on my musical approach… In a church setting it’s not about technique, soloing or anything like that. It’s about playing what is necessary and playing it for a purpose, and about communicating on a deeply emotional and spiritual level. [my italics added – P.H.] That’s what I was trying to do then when I playing in my father’s church, and that’s what I continue to attempt to achieve now.”

Don’t get me wrong. Entertainment, good times, and smiles all have their place. I used to have a good time watching Entertainment Tonight when I was much younger. But the real deal about music is what Blade describes. You’ve probably already read here that I’ve been on the receiving end, close up, of Blade’s music and feel exceedingly fortunate about that.

Given what Jean-Pierre wrote, I have to ask myself, ‘Why would a musician settle for simply entertaining, aspire to something less than art?”

To pay the bills — that’s one reason why. My colleague Alex Hutchinson pointed me to the website of Toronto clarinetist Bob De Angelis, who was part of the Ottawa jazz festival’s Great Canadian Jazz series. We were both surprised to see that De Angelis markets himself, in one context, as a purveyor of “background jazz” — suitable for cocktail or dinner receptions… the volume is perfect allowing conversation between your guests to be foremost.” Now there’s not a jazz musician alive who hasn’t taken that kind of gig, but playing in a shopping mall or cocktail reception is not why a player dedicates his or her life to music.

There are so many musicians who put it all on the line, staying true to their artistic selves and their creativity because playing for other purposes or in other contexts would be a betrayal that diminishes them. It may mean sacrifices – financial security, comfort, having families – but they don’t kn ow another way of doing things.

These are the musicians who knock me out, whose dedication is audible and whose music I keep coming back to. I hear deep emotions and ideas when they play: this is the sound of love; this is the sound of surprise; this is the exhilaration of rhythm; this sound makes the moment exalted; this sound is striving for excellence; this sound is mine and mine alone; this sound is the unwavering, committed assertion of what is beautiful to me.

(In this context, the festival’s great genius this year was Herbie Hancock, whose show was everything at the same time — wonderfully engaging and entertaining thanks to Herbie’s genuine playfulness and positive vibe, and at the same time, extremely artful, because Herbie is nothing if not a fearless musical explorer.)

I hope that many listeners hear music as I do. They may not be as explicit in how they frame things. But to speak about music, as Jean-Pierre does, and to leave art out of the mix, I would hope, is a minority’s opinion.

Any thoughts? Am I being much too snobby and esoteric? Is playing to entertain taking the low road? Use the comment feature below if you want to add your two cents.

For reading such a long post, you surely deserve to watch a video. Since I mentioned Kenny Werner above, here he is with his trio playing his tune Little Blue Man, from his album Gu-Ru.

This Week's Flyers

Comments

We encourage all readers to share their views on our articles and blog posts. We are committed to maintaining a lively but civil forum for discussion, so we ask you to avoid personal attacks, and please keep your comments relevant and respectful. If you encounter a comment that is abusive, click the "X" in the upper right corner of the comment box to report spam or abuse. We are using Facebook commenting. Visit our FAQ page for more information.